Komatsu

Summary

Komatsu (小松(こまつ)) is the Head Chef working for the six-star restaurant in Hotel Gourmet, a hotel owned by the prestigious IGO and is the secondary protagonist of Toriko. He is Toriko's ever enthusiastic yet timid chef partner, who despite his weakness is greatly interested by what he finds in his travels with Toriko. As a result, he tries to overcome his fear and does his best to help. At the beginning of the series he was only a five-star chef of little to no recognition but upon making many gourmet achievements he rose to the rank of six-star and has made it into the prestigious IGO Chef Ranking at number 88, thus being recognized as one of the best chefs in the world.

Powers and Stats

Powers and Abilities:Superhuman Speed (Can finely julienne a head of cabbage in a matter of seconds), Food Honor expert (A philosophical practice of the appreciation of your food, which is pursued by seeking perfection of bodily control and power of concentration, and through it achieving enhanced physical ability and supreme energy efficiency, through mastering this, Komatsu can cut a Puffer Whale so delicately that it won't notice that he's carving into it), can hear the "Voices" of ingredients (Komatsu possesses a gift that allows him to hear the "Voices" of ingredients, and as such cook them the way they want to be cooked. Komatsu can hear these voices clearly enough for him to complete the Century Soup before even Setsuno could), superhuman willpower (has accompanied Toriko on nearly all of his journeys, going to dangerous environments like Ice Hell or the Vegetable Sky, and was able to persevere through extreme climates and dangerous battles, kept himself alive even after sustaining a serious injury from a Nitro (Zebra's sound armor prevented him from outright dying)

Intelligence: Average, though his gift and potential for cooking far outstrips nearly every other character in the manga

Weaknesses: Human level physique (Except for speed)

Notable Attacks/Techniques:

Food Honor: Both a customary and a philosophical practice of etiquette that teaches gratitude for ingredients and a strict method of eating in, especially difficult, but necessary ways. The teachings of Food Honor tends to vary between adhering groups, but the main teaching of gratitude and careful eating is a staple amongst all of them. Komatsu follows the discipline taught at the Shokurin Temple, where he learned to continuously show appreciation for one's meal from the bottom of his hearts. In the training, he drastically augmented the delicacy of his movements and power of concentration by learning to cut on unnecessary movements, better focus his mind and practicing bodily control and precision.

Food Luck: Food Luck is thought to be an extremely rare attribute, that helped guide Komatsu to find and prepare various ingredients. It is so great, that it trumps even the Four Heavenly Kings super-human senses, as shown when, on more than one occasion, Komatsu has been the first to find the ingredients.

Hearing the "Voice" of Ingredients: Komatsu is able to hear the "Voice" of ingredients, which not many chefs are able to do. Other than allowing him to find ingredients that suit Komatsu very well, as well as instinctively knowing how to prepare them, not much is known about this ability. Komatsu has also gained a vast amount of experience in this ability after re-creating the Century Soup.

Intimidation: A visual optical illusion which can be used to avoid meaningless battles and can make his enemy scared (he appears like a vicious bloodlusted demon, many creatures are scared of it, it is also a very useful ability against his opponents). When Komatsu uses the Derous Fang Knife against an animal, the sheer power within the knife will present the illusion of the Derous Dragon itself.

The Dark Techniques (暗技（あんぎ）, Kura-waza (Angi)) refer to kitchen techniques prohibited by the IGO in fear of upsetting the circulation of food, even though it has been mostly used to revitalize humans and beasts for healing purposes.